FCP won't recognise JVC HD101 - 720p25

I have trawled through the forums here and other places looking for an answer but I am stumped. I have shot footage on a JVC HD-101 in 720p25 and I am totally unable to capture it. I have tried using DVHSCap as well as AVC Video Cap on top of FCP 6.0.6 bit I am unable to get the camera to even be recognised. I have tried importing plain DV footage as well and failed. I am starting to think that maybe the FireWire I/O is blown, but don't know how to test that. It seems that many others have had problems with this setup, but it's incredibly frustrating that the camera doesn't exist as far as the computer is concerned.

I have tried ProRess 422, Apple Intermediate, straight HDV and have had no luck at all. The camera belongs to the university I go to (RMIT in Melbourne) and there is no-one around to help me out at the moment due to the mid-semester break.

If anyone has had any similar experiences I'd love to hear how you may have solved the issues. This is really driving me crazy! Any advice at all would be very much appreciated as I have a bunch more footage to shoot and edit.